Saint Michelle
by BroadwayBookworm
Summary: The first Les Miz fic I've ever written, based on Eponine, though I am not particularly sympathetic to her so this story won't be. Please read and review!


_Uh-oh,_ she opened her eyes, _yes, she had fallen asleep._ "He's going to kill me..." Eponine muttered, willing herself to get up. These days she was always falling asleep right in the middle of her father's dirty work. What with her mother's snoring and her sister's incessant sniffling Eponine never slept a wink in their tiny one-room flat. He would be raging mad when she got home with no information and no money and his being drunk wouldn't help the matter either. Thinking quickly she snatched a fat man's purse and nimbly ran off down the avenue careful not to look suspicious. As she turned the corner into the seedy section, San Michele, she noticed a large group forming around something on the sidewalk. There was some protest as she pushed her way through the crowd but Eponine ignored it. All of a sudden she found herself at the front of the crowd gazing into the face of an unconcious young man. The man was handsome with curly light brown hair and an upturned nose. To Eponine he looked vaguely familiar. A little boy who seemed to be about 10 or11 was kneeling over him, and saying the man's name over and over,

"Marius? Can you hear me? Marius?" A tall man with dark hair and a knit brow was gazing worriedly at the pair.

"Sir, what happened?" Eponine asked the man.

"You know Marius?"

She realized how she knew him now, "Oh, yes, I live in the same building down the street there. I'm Eponine Thernadier by the way."

"Well Mademoiselle Thernadier, I am Enjolras and this little boy is my friend Gavroche," the little boy turned to look at Eponine. He reminded her oddly of her own father.

"Well Marius here, due to his usual lovesick clumsiness he tripped over a stone and fell."

Eponine's heart broke in that instant, "Lovesick?"

Enjolras gave a short laugh, "He's absolutely crazy for some mysterious girl named Cosette." _Couldn't be, could it?_ "It certainly does interrupt his work for the friends," "The Friends?" "Well..er..." he leaned in closer, "the...ah... revolutionaries," She swelled with excitement planning it all out, she would help Marius' cause, he would fall madly in love with her, forget Cosette and marry her. "Could I... ah..." Eponine lowered her voice just as Enjolras had done, "join?"

Enjolras gave her an odd look, "You'd like to help us?" "Don't sound so shocked, you barely know me or my interests." Emabarassed, Enjolras shifted around uncomfortably, "Well Marius once mentioned that a man named Thernadier had..."

Eponine realized Enjolras was quite a nervous man, "Well he had picked Marius's pocket."

"That is my father not me, and I would like to join in your cause," her voice had more confidence than she felt.

"If you're sure, we meet next Tuesday at the ABC Cafe."

"Where is that?"

"On Rue Plumet."

"I'll be there, Monsieur Enjolras," Eponine glanced once more at Marius lying sprawled on the ground. As she darted off, Enjolras stared longingly after her, following her long shiny mane of dark hair until it disappeared into the crowd.

* * *

"Father?" Eponine searched the dark room with her eyes. The embers in the fireplace were dying. There was Monsieur Thernadier curled up in the corner, snoring loudly. She walked over to him, clutching her nose against the overwhelming stench of alcohol, "Father?" Eponine jumped as Thernadier gave a particularly loud snore. She decided the best thing to do would be to leave him alone and not come back again till the effects of the alcohol wore of. She sat on the bare floor gazing warily into the weak fire, Azelma and Mother won't be back till much later, so I have a long time to do whatever I want. A moment later she was up and out of the room and sneaking down the hall to Room 12, the home of Monsieur Marius Pontmercy.

As Eponine might have guessed, Marius' room was no cleaner the village pig sty in Montfermeil. Only the night table was tidy. On it was a little portrait of a woman with Marius' soulful eyes. Eponine reasoned it must be his mother. An address was scrawled on a spare piece of parchment and a hand mirror lay across the table's colorful covering. She looked in the looking glass and for the first time realized she wasn't the healthy little girl she had once been. Her face was gaunt, a shadow of the cherub she had once been. Her hair was shiny, yes, but only because it hadn't been washed in a very long time. The rags she wore for clothing were falling off her bony body and her body wasn't any more matured than Azelma's due to the lack of suitable food.

She lifted the mirror closer to her face. To tell the truth she barely looked in the mirror as no one she knew had one. Brown eyes like a doe's stared back from the looking glass at her. They were eyes that had seen far too much for a girl of her age. Carefully, she laid the glass back down, gently setting it where it had been and then she spun on her heel to make her swift exit.


End file.
